Virtual tour - CARA buildings.

Welcome to the Dark Sector.

CARA's scientific instruments are all over here, half a kilometer away
from where people live, in order to make sure
that there is no light pollution (visible or infrared [heat])
contaminating their observations. This is why it's called the Dark Sector,
because there's no excess light.

The path from the dome
(behind you in this shot) to the Dark Sector. The person is Al Fowler
walking toward us, towards the Dome.
Photo: CARA/D. Harper

CARA's science falls into broad categories roughly by
wavelength: microwave (specifically cosmic microwave background
radiation), submillimeter, and
infrared/visible.
Most of the astronomical instruments are controlled from within the
MAPO building. AST/RO
(the main submillimeter experiment) has its own building.
All projects also
also collect data on site characterization; there
are a few instruments devoted exclusively to site
testing (e.g. they don't do any astrophysics). Many
of those instruments are clustered in the
AASTO building.